Lovely Slimbridge... Otters, Cranes, Eider and Snipe.... what a choice!

Monday 18^th February, not Tuesday because I’m on library duty on Tuesday. Chris and I leave early for our deferred trip to Slimbridge.   

I always find WWT sites a bit pricey, and you certainly want to have a full day there to justify the concessionary rate of £11.45.   ( I still cannot understand why it is £12.60 if you pay under Gift Aid…. Yet I must pay a bit MORE, to enable WWT to get some more – the tax. Surely my signing the tax claim document gets them some more, without increasing the cost to me.   Oh well, one day someone will explain it to me).

The car park at Slimbridge is choca, which being half term is perhaps not surprising. I start with a portable coffee, and we set off for Rushy Pen.  Not very evident on the sightings board, perhaps because they are expected and taken for granted, I’m pleased to see  plenty of handsome Pintails.

The Pen also has our first sightings of a small number of Bewick Swans.

Moving on to the Tack Piece, the area is awash with masses of birds including plenty more Bewicks.  I often find here in particular, that the birds are conspicuously grouped together by species. The obvious one is the most active of the species, Lapwings. As we all know, if one or two start the stampede, all the Lapwings follow. And on what was one of their nervous days,  we saw this repeatedly.  

Redshanks are sleeping together, and the Black tailed Godwits have their own private party!

Not straight away but later we saw the stampede of Lapwings being joined by a small flock of the lovely Golden Plover. Both Plovers land at the same time, and apart from the odd one or two, they settle in 2 distinctly separate group. As a golden rule, I always watch groups in flight quite carefully and as sure as eggs, Starlings have joined with the Lapwings. In flight, their relatively smaller shape is quite distinct compared with the Lapwings, and we also see another distinctive group in the Lapwing flock .. Dunlins have joined the gang!

Disappointingly, there were no raptors in evidence today and unfortunately no sign of the reported Jack Snipe.        But our due diligence did enable us to see a good number of White Fronted Geese. 

Out on the edge of the Severn and viewing from the Holden Tower, we managed to find up to 6 Cranes, although we were somewhat hampered by 6 artists  on a drawing course monopolising the viewing windows.

After lunch, we checked out the remaining hides down the Western Arm and at South Lake with more of the same, and nothing to add to the year list.

A couple of photos birds in pens, just to prove that we were there.

First, the lovely cooing Eiders.

No, no Jack Snipe in this lot.

However, at 3pm we just happened to be walking passed a pool and enclosure and gathered from the large gathering of predominantly children that it was feeding time for the Otters. So, we watched too!

An interesting commentary kept everyone interested, and the food was dropped in the water in the closest spot for the children to get good views.  We were told that the adult female (Flo) had come from a zoo/reserve and it was only afterwards that they discovered she was pregnant and subsequently gave birth to twins (Minnie and Ha-Ha.)

………… and that dear reader is all from a very quiet week bird-wise.   All the rest of the week has been devoted to writing  a lengthy legal report, only broken by running a public quiz for the Friends of Markeaton Park on Saturday night. (Included 4 questions about birds!!!)

I just hope I get out for some birding later this week, with Tuesday week at Frampton Marsh being something to really look forward to.

Happy Birding

Worm Charming as a hobby.

Tuesday 12^th February, motivated by a rather good bird in the area (more about that later!!), Chris, Gill and I are once again at Attenborough Gravel Pits.  Neither of the ladies are admitting to their year to date bird count so it’s probably only me that is a bit of an anorak. But I’m the sort of person who likes objectives or targets, which is why I am happy to admit to being on 98 species at the start of the day. 

The ladies are more prone towards enjoying the birds, the occasions and the sheer pleasure of seeing birds, especially when they are seen doing something out of the ordinary. As for example my account last week of the Herring Gulls doing worm charming!!

I was surprised when my son told me that he had never heard of worm charming not least because it IS a well-known recreation in the West Country. The rules are simple. Measure a one metre square plot of grass and see how many worms you can bring to the surface in 15 minutes.

There are professional worm charmers, and it is quite common to collect worms for/by fishermen by this method. Over 500 “wormers” attended the Blackawton worm convention last year

The story has it that the “sport” originated after a man found it necessary to water a field on the way home from the local and was amazed at the number of worms that emerged. Was it the alcohol, or what is more likely that the falling water sounded like the patter of rain, which as Gulls have found, entices worms to the surface?

 (Ed: Have we gone a bit astray from birding?)

OK   Attenborough!!

I first see Chris on the road to the gravel pits, hoping to find the Firecrest in the hedge. Not this morning sadly, although there does continue to be irregular sighting reports.

Up the walkway to the centre, and what comes round the edge of the reed bed?  a handsome male Red Crested Pochard.  Not that it was doing it right then, but I think it fascinating the way it compacts its red head feathers when it dives, thus avoiding being unduly waterlogged!!

Kingfisher hide is the next stop, and after only 5 minutes, a fellow birder nudges me, and asks if I have seen the green bird on the grass. NO, I HADN’T but I did!….. It was my 2018 bogey bird….. a Green Woodpecker!!!   SUPERB… No. 100 for 2018. (Ed:…Steady, watch your blood pressure!)

I told you a couple of weeks ago about my abortive visit to the Rifle Range Pits at Long Eaton to see a rare Grebe. Rod Key had told me how to find the site, so after lunch, Chris and I drove through Long Eaton to Cranfleet Lock, parked up and walked to the pits. Straight away we found the superb Black Necked Grebe, on the smaller pit continuously diving and fishing. Not much else on the water, but the Grebe was well worth the journey.

A good day…. 42 species, and 3 on the year list = 101 YTD…………………… and I won’t even mention the invisible Song Thrush near the path next to Wheatear field!!! 

I’m reading a book.                …eh Yes?   It’s called ”And Another Thing” , and when I’ve finished it (next Tuesday) I will start reading another book “How hard can it be?”

These books have an unusual format. Each issue contains a selection of some of the 1,000-word articles that the author has had published in the Times newspaper every Sunday over a 2-year period.

Because I admire the writing style of this well-known author his articles make very amusing bed-time reading and each night when I’m relaxed after reading 2/3 of the articles, it’s time for bye-byes.

I know that the author is not a most popular man, not because of his writing but because of his cavalier attitude to life.  When leading any walks at Carsington, I would invarisably point out a slipway on the starboard side of the Causeway, where the Hamster drove a Lotus car into and under the water, on the BBC’s Top Gear and the indifferent reaction of my audience showed me what some people felt about the programme….. and Jeremy Clarkson. Yes, he is the author of the articles.

Jeremy writes about issues or events that he feels strongly about, and in an idle conversation with my Managing Editor, we agreed that I should have a go at an article in a similar style.

Well, what can I whinge about next week?      Got it…. Bird hides.

Watch this space!!

Happy Birding